Before the day was over my wife and I had been solicited by them several times. By late afternoon, I was concerned enough to reach out by phone to ask my contact at the organization if they would like my annual gift now or later in December as we had done in the past.

The person I was talking to suggested we make our gift on Giving Tuesday.

We did just that, at the same exact level as last year, which we had done by a check from our charitable giving account.

Just three weeks later our investment adviser sold numerous shares of appreciated stock and moved the proceeds into our charitable giving account to avoid the capital gain taxes and to allow us to be even more generous in our giving that year.

We were able to more than double many of our annual fund gifts right before year-end.

Unfortunately, we didn’t make an additional gift to the charity that solicited us so much on Giving Tuesday since we had already given them our annual gift.

I wonder how often this exact scenario unfolds for other above-average donors who donate through donor-advised funds, especially in a year like this one with the stock market setting all-time records?

Segmentation is the Key

So how could this nonprofit who missed out on my year-end gift have avoid this whole situation?

Jay Love

A 30+ veteran of the nonprofit software industry, Jay Love co-founded Bloomerang in 2012. He currently serves on the board of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and is the past AFP Ethics Committee Chairman.